I never would have believed.....

Even if you had promised me, that I would have felt that 3 miles would have been an easy walk. I am now up to about 13 miles of walking a week. Half of that in one stretch usually. This week is the longest walk so far, which is going to be 9 miles. That will put me at 16 miles this week. YOWZA.

What have I learned so far from this? I am amazed at what my body is capable of. When I am walking, I take time to thank God for the ability to walk. I see too many people out there who can barely move from one end of a store to the other. I realize that they have sometimes allowed themselves to get that way, and sometimes it is through no fault of their own. So whenever I am feeling blue, I remember - HEY, I can walk 3 miles.

Holiday Challenge: Goals

So I have been going to Weight Watchers for over a year now. During the last year I haven't really lost much weight, but I haven't gained any back either. That is good and bad. I haven't ever done a weight loss program and kept 50 lbs off for so long, but I really want to lose about 35 more pounds (for those of you who are doing the math in your head.... Yeah, I really can lose that much more). Anyway, at the meeting I go to, during the last 12 weeks of the year we do something called the Holiday Challenge. Each week our leader challenges us to do something different that will help us learn more about eating and is part of the Weight Watchers plan. So for example, one week will probably be eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables every day. I'll talk about the Holiday Challenge more as we get into that 12 week challenge (it is amazingly only a couple of weeks away) but this week we talked about setting goals for the 12 weeks, and so I am posting them here.

• Follow a half marathon training schedule in preparation for the P.F. Chang's Rock-n-Roll Marathon.
• Journal my food, exercise and feelings about the two during the twelve week challenge. (I have actually already started doing this)
• I will follow the Core plan (Weight Watchers calls it the Simply Filling Foods now, but I'll keep calling it Core) and only eat 35 extra points each week - if you have ever done WW you know what I mean, but if you don't, well you will be fine anyway.
• Eat two vegetarian meals (lunch/dinner) during the week. I have been wanting to try more vegetarian recipes, so this will help me start to do this (suggestions, Mrs. Swizzle?)

I feel good about these goals, and have actually already started most of them (except the vegetarian meals. I tried Baked Tofu in homemade fried rice last week and really liked it.

Do you have any goals for the upcoming holiday season?

After a Hiatus...

I have decided to get back to blogging. I've been missing it, and facebook can only provide me so much outlet. Had to finish school and blah, blah, blah.. there are always reasons. But anyway, I felt like getting back in, so for those of you who don't know what has been going on with me - here's the basic rundown:

• Finished travel school.
• Starting to found the business.
• Looking for a new job (stop gap until I get the travel sales up and running).
• Decided to train for a walking half-marathon with Curly Girl.

So here we go. Hope you are still interested in my life, I have continued to be interested in yours.

Wondering.....

When I taught Sunday School to 4 & 5 year olds (oh so long ago, Elastigirl's Teen was in my class) we used a technique I call "wondering. " It is one of my favorite things to start discussions now. My mom and I often say, "I wonder what..." because she is a fan of the technique as well. You get some great answers from it.

For example, when I asked, "I wonder how the shepherds felt when they saw the angels?" I was thinking that they would say, "Happy" (about 90% of the 4 & 5 year olds gave that answer for all wondering questions, then they would come up with something else while I waited) or "Scared" (which is how I think I would feel if I saw an angel, after all, the first thing an angel usually says is, "Do not be afraid.") I remember The Teen's answer like it was yesterday. He said, "I think they said, 'Hallelujah!'" and threw his hands up in the air. Always thinking, that one.

So anyway, I have so many things that I have been wondering about lately, I thought it might be good to write them down.

• I wonder what God's plan is for me


• I wonder why it seems like that plan includes me being alone


• I wonder if I will be alone for the rest of my life


• I wonder what success means to me now


• I wonder if it was a good decision to not immediately go back into the workforce


• I wonder how my new career will shape up over the next 5 years


• I wonder if I will feel successful in 5 years


• I wonder what life will be like once I have reached my weight goal


• I wonder what it will be like to wear a size 8 (or if that is the size I will be, cause I'm just guessing here)

That's just the tip of the iceberg..... What are you wondering about right now?

Thanks to Elastigirl...

for nominating me for this award. She is truly one of my closest friends, and I miss her a little bit most days and a whole lot on others. Our time together IRL is precious, but the blog she writes allows me to be with her off and on throughout the week. Thank goodness for the internet.

Here's the explanation and the silly rules that go with it:"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

As for the bloggers that are important friends to me, many have already gotten the award, but I will still list them here:

• Curly Girl: More than just a friend, she is my wonderful sister and inspires me to be more like her every day.
• Jennie: More family, and one of the funniest writers I have ever known.
• Mrs. Swizzle: One of the best all time blog tag lines: Do you ever feel like someone has put a swizzle stick into the top of your head and just stirred things around a little? I do, and I am glad to know there are other people like that in the world.
• Mary Beth: My first blog friend that I met after I read her blog. It was quite exhilarating. Thank goodness she is the least anonymous blogger in the whole world :)
• Princess Mindy: So interesting, and so creative. I look forward to meeting her IRL someday.
• Perplexity Project: More family, and really smart and insightful. Makes me think, which is always good.

So, looking here, I realize I need to make more blog friends. But I love the ones I have. Thanks to you all for brightening my life.

Looking Back at 2008

Reflecting on the last year, I was trying to decide what I had learned from 2008. There are so many things, but here are just a few, in no particular order:

• I am happier today than I was 5 years ago. I am focused on a goal, and working toward doing something I love instead of just existing. It really does matter.
• "You set your own price in this world" - this is a quote from my friend J, an economist. He told me that it was something his mama always told him. I repeat that to myself a lot these days.
• Things don’t get easier when you put them off. Procrastinating is never the right answer.
• Once it gets above 110 degrees outside, it really doesn’t matter if it is a dry heat or not. Really. It doesn’t.
• facebook. Enough said.
• I can be a skinny person. I can lose the weight that I want to lose, and keep it off. I just don’t know exactly how I will accomplish it.
• You don’t have to see your friends everyday for them to be really good friends.
• I have a lot to learn, even now.
  

What did you learn?

Wonderful Christmas

I had a wonderful Christmas this year. Surrounded by family, watching The Present open presents ALL DAY LONG (Christmas in the morning and birthday at night) and being delighted that he wanted to try and read every book that he got (he probably got about 15 books - the kid loves to read) and then sitting down on his own to try to read a book we got for Dimples when everyone else was busy.

Dimples was a force to be reckoned with, and no matter how many girly toys I got her (a baby doll and a pink boat) she just wanted to play with The Present's new cars. That one might be a tomboy, we'll see. She did give the baby a kiss, I think, but maybe she was just trying to put the baby's head in her mouth - she's been doing a lot of that since she started getting teeth.

For the first time in a long time, Curly Girl and I surprised our parents with their big gift. An electric smoker. Dad had been talking about it with her back in October, and she filed that info away and we did some research. Plus we got to benefit the next day when he smoked some ribs. Fantastic, his first try. YUM! In a world where we want to be sure that we get the right thing, our family has gotten in the habit of talking through what we want, and there aren't many surprises on Christmas morning. It was fun.

All in all, it was a wonderful holiday, filled with family and happiness. Hope that yours was amazing too.